1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of flocking and in particular to controlling the humidity of the flock in the flocking machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art of flocking, it is known to provide an adhesive coating of a predetermined design to a substrate such as a garment, textile, card, etc. such as by screen printing, to cover the adhesive with flock, and then to heat the substrate to cure the adhesive. The flock, of course, will adhere only to the adhesive coated portion of the substrate and after all excess flock is removed and the adhesive cured, the desired design on the garment will be "flocked" or fuzzy in both appearance and texture. The term "flock" as knwon in the prior art refers usually to a very short, natural or synthetic fiber such as may be used in coating greeting cards, garments or the like, such as fibers of rayon, nylon, polyester and pulp. It is known to apply flocking material to an adhesive coated surface in a variety of ways including manually depositing fibers over the entire surface and shaking off the excess, and more recently by the use of electrostatic devices which provide the advantage that the fibers are driven into the surface substantially on end with each fiber standing up. This gives a deeper, more textured and more uniform coating. It is well-known in the prior art to apply flocking to garments such as T-shirts, sweat shirts and the like, however, the overall operation requires a large amount of operator time and hand work. In the prior art it was known that to do a proper and efficient electrostatic flocking job it was necessary that the flocking be done in a controlled atmosphere.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system for applying flock to a substrate which overcomes one or more of the disadvantages in the prior art.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a flocking system wherein a flocking machine may be used in any location in a plant without the necessity for locating it in a room or building having a controlled atmosphere.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method, apparatus and article for controlling the moisture content of flock in a flock tray, independent of the moisture content of the ambient air (as where the flock moisture content is controlled by controlling the humidity of the ambient air in the plant), and to maintain an adjustable predetermined moisture content of the flock in the flock tray independent of the moisture content of the ambient air.